Quiscalus

The avian genus Quiscalus contains seven of the 11 species of grackles, gregarious passerine birds in the icterid family. They are native to North and South America.

The genus was named and described by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The type species was subsequently designated as the common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The genus name comes from the specific name Gracula quiscula coined by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus for the common grackle.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> From where Linnaeus obtained the word is uncertain, but it may come from the Taíno word quisqueya, meaning "mother of all lands", for the island of Hispaniola.<ref name=job>Template:Cite book</ref>

The genus contains six extant species and one extinct species:<ref name=ioc>Template:Cite web</ref>

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	Quiscalus major	Boat-tailed grackle	Florida and the coastal Southeastern United States
	Quiscalus quiscula	Common grackle	North America
	Quiscalus mexicanus	Great-tailed grackle	northern regions of South America, through the western and central United states with vagrants occasionally into Canada
	†Quiscalus palustris	Slender-billed grackle	endemic of central Mexico, namely Valley of Mexico and Toluca Valley (extinct around 1910)
	Quiscalus nicaraguensis	Nicaraguan grackle	Nicaragua and northernmost Costa Rica
	Quiscalus niger	Greater Antillean grackle	the Greater Antilles
	Quiscalus lugubris	Carib grackle	Colombia east to Venezuela and northeastern Brazil

External links

• Quiscalus videos, photos and sounds on the Internet Bird Collection

Template:Icteridae-stub